The development of indigenous manpower for the oil and gas industry received a boost last Friday as 40 engineering and geosciences graduates passed out from a one-year internship programme organised by the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) operated Joint Venture and Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN), a group of indigenous oilfield service companies.
The milestone occurred on the same day that SPDC JV performed the ground-breaking ceremony of its Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) domestication initiative, whereby the manufacturers and their Nigerian partners have been allocated land to set up local assembly plants and service centres at the Shell Industrial Area in Port Harcourt.
In an address at the ceremony, Managing Director of the SPDC and Country Chair, Shell Companies in Nigeria, Mr. Osagie Okunbor, said: “I’m pleased at the successful completion of the programme by the first batch of 40 graduates who worked with 12 PETAN member companies.
I’m even more pleased that, as envisaged, a number of them have been employed by the partner companies and others.” The MD was represented by SPDC’s General Manager, Projects, Toyin Olagunju.
